The heart of our mission is to find the amazing souls that breathe life into our communities. In the recent weeks, we’ve had the privilege to connect with some incredible artists, creatives, entrepreneurs and rabble rousers and we can’t begin to express how impressed we are with the incredible group below. Check out our favorite stories from across the Voyage family.
Eva Burrow
When I moved to the USA from Europe, I knew I wanted to start a different kind of career. No more 9 to 5, no more pressure, and no more time away from family. Photography has been my passion and love since I was a little girl. Read more>>
Samantha Lawrence
My entrepreneurial journey began with a passion for beauty, creativity, and helping women feel confident. What started as a vision to create an elevated salon experience grew into Chromatique Salon, a luxury salon brand that has become one of the most recognized and awarded salons in the Pacific Northwest. Read more>>
William Dickinson
I was born and raised on the West Coast, with deep roots throughout the Pacific Northwest. My professional journey began early, and by 1980, I was already immersed in the demanding and highly competitive world of professional music. Much of my early music career took place in California, where I built a reputation as a dedicated professional drummer. Read more>>
Monika Lawrence and Miesha Russell
Fashion Talk Tuesday is where runway meets real conversation. Founded in the Pacific Northwest by fashion creative Miesha Russell and style storyteller Monika Thornton-Lawrence, FTT is a live digital platform spotlighting designers, stylists, models, and cultural disruptors shaping today’s fashion industry. Read more>>
Michelle Merritt
Handmade. Small batch. Worth it. My love of baking began long before I ever owned a bakery. What started as a personal passion grew into years of learning and experimenting, I’ve always been drawn to the way food brings people together and how a simple pastry can create a lasting memory. Read more>>
Luis Lopez
It started me leaving the family business in San Diego, November 2023. After being part of the business since 2014 and being co-owner since 2018 I decided to go back to school and pursue a master degree in Applied Artificial Intelligence. Read more>>
Dara Quinn
The Emerald of Siam was the very first Thai restaurant in Tri-Cities Washington. With a small endowment from my grandparents my aunt and mother converted a soda fountain shop in the Thrifty Drug store into a little Thai restaurant. I took over our family restaurant in 2011. Read more>>
Sara Kozak
I’ve always been a creator. There’s something instinctual about taking in the world around me and constructing something that shows others how I relate. I’ve always worked in many mediums at once. But, for many years, I was primarily a studio potter and manufacturer of artisan stoneware. Read more>>
ANJULI WEBSTER
I started baking about fifteen years ago because my son was turning one and I wanted to bake his cake. I had no idea what I was doing and fumbled through his first birthday. I was determined to have a better handle on baking for his next birthday. For the next ten years I baked for my family, mainly for my kids’ birthdays. Read more>>
Kim Villines
My dad originally started the Earthlight shop in Kirkland back in 1988, I worked the shop with my dad part time in 1989 and at rock shows with him since the very beginning in 88. Read more>>
Mo Tsimouris
I got my start working in my family’s business that was on the decline and my father and I changed the concept and built what became Bellingham Bar and Grill today. Read more>>
Cash Walcome
I started Aquor straight out of college alongside my co-founders. For the first four years, we worked out of a home office, trying to gain traction and grow the business while operating on a very lean budget. In 2017, we raised an angel round from local investors, which helped us invest in growth and build momentum. Read more>>
Sharon Hagerty
My millinery and hat shop owner story began when I was looking thru a course catalog for adult education in San Francisco. I had enjoyed sewing classes and vintage clothes in High School and wished to persue course work in design. In the course cataolg I saw a class for Millinery. Read more>>
Tyler Russell
People’s Pilates opened in December 2022. It’s a collaboration between Alex Seiz, Kayla Russell, and me, Tyler Russell. We’re a family-owned Pilates business with three locations in Tacoma: Hilltop, Central Tacoma, and South Tacoma Way. Before opening People’s, we all came from very different backgrounds. Read more>>
Paige Wagter
I grew up in the Midwest. Competed NCEA Equestrianat Kansas State and then got a job offer from Cargill / Nutrena when I graduated college which relocated me to Washington. I was stir crazy in an office and started teaching riding lessons after work. I even advertised on Craigslist at that point – how sketch! Read more>>
Benjamin Vanderwerff
My story started at age three, sitting at the foot of my bed drawing made-up Pokémon while my mother read The Boxcar Children. Those drawings are some of my earliest memories and marked the beginning of a lifelong obsession with art. I eventually attended college, spending five years primarily in studio classes and exploring nearly every medium available. Read more>>
Alex Salazar
I’m 22 years old, and I’ve always been interested in business. My dad had started a roofing business with my older brother a couple years back, and when my brother decided to go down a different career path, my dad decided to take a break from owning the business and started working for someone else. Read more>>
Britt ‘BZ’ Hanowell
This is such a difficult question. NeverStill Studio and my journey with photography is sprawling and hard to define. I was born in Bellingham, raised in Lynden, and then as an adult moved back to Bellingham with my wife. Photography, writing, and art have always been with me. Photos have always been my dragon hoard. Read more>>
Anne Warjone
Lymphatic system specialist with massage license and 30 years experience, helping clients manage vascular, immune, and life cycle changes by resetting their nervous systems and regenerating their natural body flows. I custome build recovery programs, products, and systems for people who want to inhabit their lives more fully. Read more>>
Aaron Davis
Art has always been my way to express my self. Growing up from a young age I’ve always been passionate about creating. Read more>>
Alexis Taladay
My husband and I have both worked in the restaurant industry for more than twenty five years each. We have extensive experience in all of the roles in the front of the house, in all different environments. We moved to Tacoma with the intention of opening our own restaurant, but got delayed by Covid. Read more>>
Gayle Roberts
After a 20-year career as a construction project manager, I decided to take a career break for a couple of years. My husband and I set out to travel as much as we could and spent about 18 months having adventures around the world. I didn’t want to go back to the corporate grind with all the stress and commuting. Read more>>
Marlee Martin
Growing up, I was always a crafty, curious girl. I watched YouTube videos, made things in my room, and played with my American Girl dolls and at some point, I picked up my parents’ old dusty camera and started photographing them. Looking back, those dolls were my first models, and honestly? The photos were great. Photography and storytelling were always part of my home life. Read more>>
Oxana Americana
I began my career in 2011 studying makeup, and soon realized the importance of creating complete looks, which led me to train in hairstyling as well. One of my first major opportunities was working at MAC Cosmetics, where I gained valuable experience and worked on fashion shows before joining one of Moscow’s top beauty salons. Read more>>
Alex Larios
I was born in Guadalajara and moved to Seattle with very little. Like a lot of kids from immigrant families, I grew up watching the people around me work nonstop just to create stability and opportunity for the next generation. My family sacrificed everything to build a life here, and I’ll always carry that with me. But even at a young age, I felt different. Read more>>
Chocolate Jones
After Covid I asked the question, ‘what do I do now?’ I started dreaming of making these large cookies and topping them. I wrote down each cookie for a few weeks and then started seeing 777 every where, either an address, a total, my change or a license plate, I told a friend and she states it’s the answer to whatever question I asked. Read more>>
Clair Schwem
I started this business by accident. I was unemployed, my friend reached out about a project, and I jumped at the opportunity. At the time it felt like a fun sidequest but looking back it was the best thing that could have happened to me. Growing up I always wanted to be an artist. Read more>>
Wendy Magana
I started my career in critical care as a registered nurse and then moved to urgent care and family medicine as a nurse practitioner, but my passion for healthcare really began much earlier through my upbringing. Growing up in a immigrant, farming lifestyle, I saw firsthand how language barriers, financial stress, and limited access to care could impact families and their health decisions. Read more>>
Brynna Sweet
Becoming a full time photographer and business owner wasn’t actually my original plan after graduating from UW. I was actually a psychology major and intending on continuing towards a Master’s Degree in Marriage & Family Therapy. I worked for a psychology-based corporate leadership consultancy at the time, and started doing photographer as a way to bolster my income a bit as I applied to schools. Read more>>
Josie Cowburn
I grew up in Vancouver, Washington, and spent more than 20 years working as a nurse in the emergency department. Day after day, I saw people at their worst—crisis after crisis—and it became impossible to ignore what led them there. I wasn’t just seeing illness. I was seeing what happens when people don’t get the care, support, or answers they needed earlier. Read more>>
Toni Khoury
Barbastella Detailing was born out of my own love for cars and the little obsessions I had with ensuring the car ran good, looked good, and made me feel good. Read more>>
Kyo Tagawa
I ended up in WA state in late spring/ early summer of 2024 after deciding that it was time to take a leap of faith– fully commiting to working full time as a concept artist. I’ve always wanted to work in the Game Industry, complete with the titles and studios I wanted to end up at. Read more>>
Amy Lewis
I am a self taught artist. I taught myself how to watercolor paint from a young age because I was in love with color and I needed a creative outlet. After graduating high school, I took a 5 week youth course at Gage Academy in Seattle where I learned classical methods of drawing and oil painting. Read more>>
Kaia Matheny
Adrift was opened 25 years ago by her first owner with community as the priority. Locally sourced foods, by local Farmers and Fisher’s. Fast forward the original owner stepped back and hired a fabulous management team to run The day to day operations, the original owner retired and sold the business to two of her managers that had been at Adrift for over ten years. Read more>>
Tany Manzat
I grew up in Romania and moved to the United States with my family when I was in high school. Some of my favorite childhood memories are from my mom’s garden, where I spent hours playing among the flowers, picking little bouquets, and simply enjoying being outside. Those early days sparked a love for flowers that has stayed with me throughout my life. Read more>>
Cherlyn Eliza
I first started out in landscape and adventure photography just for fun. I would take my camera out on every hike and backpacking trip, even down canyons with waterfalls just to be able to capture the fun and adventures I would have with my friends. Read more>>
Amy Gabbert
I started Gabbert Clinic by myself, working as the sole therapist, the medical biller, the receptionist, the marketer, etc. I did everything in the beginning from a very small one-room office. But I found some doctors in the area who needed a certified hand therapist to refer their patients to and my caseload grew very rapidly. Read more>>
Gillian Schwab
I grew up around small business ownership, so from a young age I saw both the freedom and the pressure that come with building something of your own. Watching my parents run a business shaped how I think about work, money, risk, and responsibility. Read more>>
Rebekah Waltmann
Our family loves board games, so we grew up playing them. Then, when I, Rebekah, lived abroad for over 10 years, I found that board games brought people together, no matter what their backgrounds. When I needed a change, I jokingly told my sister, Hannah, that I had a name for a board game cafe–The 15% Board Game Cafe. Read more>>
Anna-Julia Geiger
“I moved to the U.S. from Germany in 2013 and worked as an elementary school teacher with a master’s degree in teaching art and math. After settling in here, I joined a gallery in Kirkland to exhibit my artwork, continued painting, and began studying pottery and wheel throwing. Read more>>
Antonio Torres
Benevolent Sol started as a project made directly to confront people about their reality. Benevolent Sol started in 2023 in Seattle, playing mostly house and college shows. In the earlier days of the band, the emphasis was on the quality of our live performances and songwriting more than anything, which ultimately led me to create the interwoven parallel universe within our songs. Read more>>
Benedict Almquist
My journey to where I am today has been a process of discovery, shaped by a deep curiosity about geography and a passion for winemaking. Read more>>
Mateen Sultani
From Afghanistan to Early Childhood Leadership: Mateen’s Journey of Purpose and Community My name is Mateen, and I am the director of Blessed Baby Tacoma Early Learning Center, where I spend most of my time supporting and educating young children. My journey has been filled with challenges, growth, and meaningful experiences that shaped who I am today. Read more>>
Ben DiFilippo
Back in 2017, the light bulb went off on a small organic farm in Lafayette, Colorado, to be a land steward. After another farming stint in Southern California and reconnecting with my now wife in Tennessee, I joined AmeriCorps, serving the nonprofit Sustainable Future Center, to address food insecurity and teach sustainable food production through a permaculture garden project in Knoxville. Read more>>
